The more it played in his mind, the more he could envision it. Donning the blue and white seemed like the perfect fit and Mike Watkins would end up at Division II Cheyney University.

That was two years ago, before Watkins realized his true potential on the basketball court and became part of Penn State's 2015 recruiting class.

Now Watkins is a rising senior entering his second year at Philadelphia's Math, Civics & Sciences and has been verbally committed to the Nittany Lions since June 2013.

The 6-foot-9 forward has stayed true to his word for over 14 months, despite his impressive play on the AAU trail with Team Philly that led many to speculate he could aim for a school deemed better than Penn State.

Nittany Lion head coach Pat Chambers and his staff were on the first to track Watkins when he was in 10th grade and, for a player that didn't pay any mind to the college game then, being first put Penn State in a league of their own when it came to make a decision.

"I think it was the family environment," Team Philly 17U coach Kyle Sample said. "For him to not have any schools at all, and then have Penn State see him and come on really strong, that made Mike feel even more comfortable with the school and just go ahead and get it over with."

"Mike doesn't really know about 'this school, that school'," Charles Jones, Watkins' mentor, added. "If you asked him who Coach K was, he wouldn't know. Once he went up to Penn State and he saw it for himself, it was like he never knew it existed. It was like he was in awe, like how was this place this close and I never even knew."

Playing with Team Philly, a Reebok-backed AAU program that has produced the likes of current NBA players Kyle Lowry, Maalik Wayns and Lavoy Allen, Watkins has outperformed every expectation thrown at him.

With that success comes more college coaches calling, even after being verbally committed for over a year. Yet those closest to him don't want to let all the interest from other schools force him to make a bad decision.

"When people say that, it sounds foolish to me," Sample said. "As far as big guys go in the country, there aren't too many better conferences than the Big Ten. All of the stories and stuff about him opening up, I just think that comes from the fact that he is a big time recruit and those guys that commit early won't stick. I think a lot more kids should do it, to get it over with and take the pressure off of themselves and Mike was one of those kids."

Watkins was just the first big pickup of the Nittany Lions' 2015 recruiting class, which has only improved over time. Since then, Penn State has added verbal commitments from Lithuanian-born forward Deividas "Davis" Zemgulis and Oak Hill Academy guard Josh Reaves, on top of the top 2016 player from Maryland in Joe Hampton for the recruiting class to follow.

For Watkins and Jones, who played at Widener and Watkins' former high school in Bartram (Pa.), it's all just a vision that Chambers laid out in front of them that is starting to take fruition.

"It's clear that Pat Chambers and his coaching staff have a vision and Mike was the first one to believe that," Jones said. "Everyone's saying now that Mike could go bigger but the reality is that everything we saw, the vision and the blueprint that Chambers gave us is starting to form.

"Even after Mike committed, a lot of coaches still called me. But none of them, to me, wore the confidence that Pat Chambers wears. I just listen to him talk and he talks like he's winning 20 games a year and that shows me that if he can get the pieces he needs he knows he can compete. Mike believed in that and they believed in Mike, so it was all a no-brainer."